Row after BBC suspends star host Gary Lineker for anti-govt tweet; top boss says won't resign

Gary Lineker was told by the BBC to "step back" from presenting his football show on Friday after the former England star sparked an impartiality row by criticising the British government's new asylum policy.

The 62-year-old, who fronts the flagship Match of the Day programme, this week compared the language used to launch the new policy to the rhetoric of Nazi-era Germany on Twitter.

The BBC said it considered Lineker's "recent social media activity to be a breach of our guidelines", adding he should avoid taking sides on political issues.

Meanwhile, the BBC's director general Tim Davie said he will not resign after the publicly-funded broadcaster's sport service was decimated on Saturday by a backlash to Gary Lineker's removal as Match of the Day host.

"Everyone wants to calmly resolve the situation," Davie said in a BBC interview.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said he hoped the stand-off can be "resolved in a timely manner."

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